When the last Star Wars film – The Force Awakens – was released I wrote this in my review:

It achieves its basic requirement: putting down firm foundations for the several more Star Wars films and spin offs that will be coming our way over the next few years.

I enjoyed the spectacle but I thought the plot was a re-run of previous films:

Don’t expect miracles from the plot – once things get going you do get a real sense of déja-vu. This is the third time part of this story line has been used in the Star Wars films. You’d think that the bad guys would have a bit more imagination by now.

Rogue One is the first of a number of spin-off movies, including one due next year that currently goes by the name of “the untitled Han Solo Star Wars movie”.

I’d heard this film was good, as in “it’s good for a spin off”, but I really enjoyed it. It looks great, it keeps the action flowing and the music clearly takes its cues from the original scores but builds on them well. It is definitely part of the Star Wars universe.

Most importantly it has a plot. The events of the film provide background to the original Star Wars film and effectively explain that film’s title “A New Hope”. It’s great to get some new revelations.

If all the Star Wars spin-off “stories” are as good as this one then it bodes well for the future.

I managed to go into the new Star Wars film without having seen anything apart from the very first trailer and having heard nothing about the plot. I keep hearing that the film is making serious amounts of money and I’m not surprised – I saw the film a couple of weeks after release and the 9am weekday showing I went to was at least 3/4 full. My local cinema still has 29 showings a day…

Expectations are very high for this film and for the most part it manages to meet them. This is easily the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back (although some may say that the competition is not up to much…). The film goes back to the “beat-up” universe of the original trilogy and it looks great – even though I only saw it in 2D. It achieves its basic requirement: putting down firm foundations for the several more Star Wars films and spin offs that will be coming our way over the next few years.

The new cast members are good and they bring a good dose of humour to the story even if their characters are not fully fleshed out. It’s good to see the old-timers back on the screen.

Don’t expect miracles from the plot – once things get going you do get a real sense of déja-vu. This is the third time part of this story line has been used in the Star Wars films. You’d think that the bad guys would have a bit more imagination by now. That’s not to say that the story doesn’t have its killer twists.

This is a great film. You cannot deny that there is still a certain magic when the film starts, the yellow plot synopsis disappearing into the far reaches of space whilst the main title music blasts out. Experiencing that on a big screen still gives me the tingles…